Coronavirus: Omicron sends South Korea’s cases to new high; outbreak on Australian aid ship heading to Covid-free Tonga

South Korea’s daily count of new coronavirus cases topped 8,000 for the first time on Tuesday, as the highly infectious Omicron variant, which became dominant last week, spreads rapidly despite the recent extension of strict social-distancing rules to slow infection.The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 8,571 cases for Monday, exceeding the previous high posted in mid-December of 7,848.Daily tallies had almost halved to around 4,000 this month but began rebounding last week…

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